Man of grit and determination

We send our kids to the best school in town (doesn’t matter if its far away) And then after school he/she has to attend tuitions, and tuitions start as early as from the first standard !!
Some even go to the extend of proclaiming, my daughter is "convented" (whatever that means)
A few years ago I read an article in one of the magazines and thought, if we have more people like this, the world would have been a better place to live for the kids.
I had been regularly following his (Uttam Teron's) progress and coaxed him to start an account in a bank (having larger network in the country) so that people who wanted to contribute could directly transfer the money.
 I did a write up about him and his academy on Flickr (click on the picture below for details)

These are some of the recent photographs that he has send me. The joy of getting a new carom board, some of the sarees woven at the place and US astronaut Mike Fincke visiting the loom.
You can get more info about the school here.

Trams of Bombay

In the still of the night of 31st March, 1964 there was a big uproar in the streets and I remember my dad saying "Oh that must be the last tram" I did not get it then, till I saw the papers the next day splashed with photographs of merry makers enjoying the free ride on the last tram in Bombay.
An end of an era. Trams were so convenient (and affordable) The fare from Byculla to Regal theatre (Colaba) was 10 paise. The city fathers ensured that the fares were kept real low so that all could afford it.
The average speed being something like 8 kmph it was easy to board a tram. The best thing that impressed me was the seats. It was a simple arrangement in which the seats were wooden with two slots at the ends. The back rest was supported by two bars which passed through these slots. When the tram reached its destination and started its return journey, these back rests are simply flipped to the other side. Thus at any given time the passengers were always facing the front (in the direction of motion). A simple but ingenious idea. The photograph gives an idea how it works though its not a seat from the Bombay tram. The other two pictures show the single Decker and the double Decker trams that plied in Bombay.
The present BEST was originally “The Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways” which came into existence in 1905.

Later came the trolley bus which also ran on electricity but on tyres.(see this link for photograph) This mode of transport did not last long as the pantographs got dislodged whenever the bus moved to the sides. (went off the road in 1974)
So now it’s the BEST buses that rule Bombay.
A special mention should be made about the staff of the BEST. All said and done they are really efficient and well mannered when compared to the other bus services all over India. The ticket box too has a wet sponge, there by making it easy for the conductors to pull out single tickets. Now its an easy guess how other conductors wet their fingers for the same purpose. (click on the picture below)

Mrs Kelkar

Old pictures bring back memories.
This must be from the late fifties. I have no memory of this being clicked but I will never forget the Kelkar family. Thats our immediate neighbor Mrs Kelkar on the right with her daughter Shalini behind. I used to call her Aaie (mother in Marathi) Aaie was more conversant with Marathi than with Hindi. But we used to get along well. She used to pamper me a lot. They had a big radio in their drawing room. (huge rooms with high ceilings built by the British) But what fascinated me more was the extension speaker which was in the kitchen. I used to sit on the small stool in the kitchen observing her as she went about happily doing her daily chores of cutting vegetables, cooking, making the water hot for husband’s bath (like a perfect dutiful bharatiya nari) all the while singing “Me dolkara, dolkara dolkara dariyacha raja, Vallhav re nakhwa ho vhallav re rama ” along with the song from All India Radio. It got into my head that when I grow up and have my own house I will listen to the radio and have an extension speaker in every room.

The best time to be in the Kelkar's house was during Diwali, or rather the month before Diwali.
The lovely aroma of the sweets being made. I had free access to all her sweet boxes and dabbas (one of the reasons why my dad used to forbid me from going there during diwali) The way Sharad made the aakash kandil taking great care that it should be perfect. Sharad (Aaie’s elder son) was another person who impressed me. He was very upright, no hanky panky stuff and even though I could not understand much Marathi in those days, I could make out that he was some one who had some principles and was fair in all dealings.

What you see above is the only picture I have of Mr Sharad. This was clicked about 26 years ago when he came with his daughter to attend my sister's wedding. His daughter is on the left and my daughter Nisha on the right.
Incidentally those two boys behind are my second cousins Anand and Jim.

Today I don’t have an extension speaker but my radio (World Space) is in my bed room and is almost always on for 24 hours. There is nothing like listening to the good old songs and radio Farishta is my favorite station on World Space. (I wonder if World Space will pay me for advertising on Blog)

At the first rain my dad used to make me stand at that spot, where you can see the white pail. “having bath in the first rain cures you of all illness” they say. Now I see why that spot was good because all the water from the tiles converge at that spot.

The four storied building seen behind is Rustom Baug, one of the Parsee colonies in Bombay. At the stroke of 8 in the morning you could hear a Royal Enfield Bullet take off, from Rustom Baug, (the firing of a Bullet motorbike is unique) I have never seen the owner but I can picture some one with a side car going to work (yes almost all the Bullets in Bombay had a side car)

Oh by the way that’s me in the center and my mom on the left. My Dad clicked this. He not only clicked it but developed and printed it himself at home. He was a self reliant man and did most of the things himself. 

Thatched roof

They say that the coconut tree is the only tree in which nothing goes waste (click on the picture of the coconut tree above to see the uses)

I remember seeing my grandmother weaving these coconut palms which were later used to thatch the roofs.

There is a particular way in which the woven palms were placed and tied with kayar (thin rope made from the coconut husk) If you don’t have kayar, you can use the single leaf of the coconut palm for tying. (the leaves are half heated over an open fire and it turns out very strong and binds well)

Two layers ensure that there is no leakage during monsoons and in summer it keeps the room cool. The roofs were thatched every year before the monsoons.

I tried my hand here doing it and it was fun. (This was clicked by my brother and that’s me on the right) This particular ante room was used as a shed to store items required for the kitchen especially fire wood.

And thats cricket for you.

Had been to Bombay last year to attend a friend’s daughter’s wedding which was in Juhu. As there was time to kill, I sneaked off to the beach with my camera (while others were in the hotel room watching TV as the program was to start at 8pm)
My idea was to get some good snaps of the sunset. I realized two things while I was at the beach. One is you cannot get good shots of “the beautiful sun set” with a simple ordinary camera. The second is that there is a lot of activity that goes on at the beach which is worth watching. Like the chana walla who sells his wares with his light weight stand and the basket. He has to keep shifting from place to place to avoid the eyes of the cops and to get new customers.
And then there was this cricket team (probably the locals) who just enjoyed the vast open space and the frenzy with which they shout when the ball is “up in the air” I kept clicking and intermittently showed them the result through the LCD screen. Soon it became the routine. After every over, all of them would flock around me to see the “result” I found that I was enjoying the match as much as they loved playing it. “In the next ball I am going to hit a sixer, and you better click that” said Shankar. Later on I wished they had some e mail or there was some way by which I could send them the prints of what I had clicked.
The only other time I enjoyed watching a cricket match was in the movie Lagaan. Cricket in the rawest form was its best when the British handed it over to us knowingly or unknowingly.

Let us face it, Cricket was a game invented by the British to kill time. The weather is pleasant (there in Britain) and playing with a sweater on does not make you sweat. Drawing parallels here in India, we still wear sweater and play in the sweltering heat. Ask them why and pat comes the reply “its part of the uniform”
And when 22 players play there are 2 billion umpires in India. Oh yes every body is an “expert”
I think my aversion for cricket started from the days when there was no TV and it was only the radio and Test Matches. I mean just imagine you play for 5 long days with no result. (a draw is no result right?)
And then came the transistors. Oh boy every body had one. Come cricket season and you can see one popping out of every pocket. Once I was listening to Radio Ceylon on my home made transistor and one guy asked me for the score. I was brazen enough to tell him that I don’t listen to commentary. I can still remember the dirty look he gave me. (he did not talk to me for a long time, a if I insulted him)
Once upon a time cricket ball had to be red, the wide screen white and so was the uniform. Then came the ODI and the twenty-20 and all that went for a toss. Now we have multicolored dress and every nook and corner of the dress, pitch, bat, hat, helmet, shoes, gloves, is a good enough place for advertisement. “Hey Sachin is your left arm sleeve free for the fourth day of the fifth ODI ?”

I am more impressed by the umpires. They look more and more dashing. Talking of umpires, I think their job has become easy with action replay. If in doubt just ask the third umpire.
It’s a “crying” shame about match fixing. So lets not talk about it.
For me only one person stands out from the cricket fraternity and that is Sunil Gavaskar. And why he stands out has nothing to do with cricket !!

Fishy Tale

Getting up at 5 and going fishing is a good and interesting idea, but getting up at 5 and going to buy fish is something that no one will look forward to.
But I had promised wifey that we would do it as that is the only way we can ensure that we get good and fresh stuff at a reasonable rate. The fish supply for Pune comes mainly from Bombay and it hits the main market (near Aplana theatre) by around 4 am. So if we are there by around 5.30 we can pick up some good stuff which is sold at whole sale price.
So off we went and after a lot of wading around in that smelly water we got some good bargain. (every time I promise myself to get some gumboots for this purpose, but it never happens) The ones we got today were prawns, nai meen (Seer fish), and Chaala (Sardines)
There are two ways to ensure that you buy fresh stuff. Either you should be very good at judging the freshness by just looking/touching them, or you have to keep a watch on the containers unloaded from the vehicles and displayed so that you know that this is the latest stuff. I usually opt for the second one.
The Sardines guy was just setting up his shop so he allowed us to select and pick. Wow such fresh and big ones. The only problem is that they don’t cut and clean them, so its another big task to get it home and do the cleaning.

So wifey occupied one corner of our terrace and started her work. I told her that if this scene was in Kerala under a tree, we could have some cats and crows around.
Mum in law was particular in cleaning the chaala herself as “there is a particular way for cleaning when you have to make meen thelapichathu “
Yesterday’s lunch included meen thelapichathu, made under special instructions by mummy. But I should say it tasted great and something different.
Today we had Sardine fry.

A festivity of light.

Its Diwali and happy Diwali to all.
Good to see so many Diyas and Rangolis in front of many houses. (to know more about Rangolis, click on the picture above)
Went driving down in the evening and it was a welcome change as the usual traffic was missing. But it was tough navigating through the anars and the rockets strategically placed on the road, not on purpose but then when there is a space crunch you can't help it.
Some of the shops were closing down early to do their puja. Good thought.
By night fall we were back home and the intensity of the crackers were increasing.
Pulled up my easy chair on the terrace to relax and make the most of it with the sky lighting up more and more. Was just wondering if there was any way to reduce this noise pollution.
A thought crossed my mind "where is the recession?"